Secondhand reading around Byron Bay comes down to one library fundraiser in town and three shops spread through the Northern Rivers. The Friends of Libraries fair is held in the surf club building beside Main Beach, less than 300 m from the corner of Jonson and Lawson streets; BrunsBooks sits in Brunswick Heads, about 13 km north-north-west, Uncle Peter's Books fills a cottage in the hinterland village of Clunes, some 23 km west-south-west, and the Lifeline shop on River Street is down in Ballina, roughly 26 km south. Every distance here is as the crow flies from that corner, and the money mentioned throughout is in Australian dollars.
Some familiar names are missing from the list by design. The Book Room, with shops on Fletcher Street and in Lennox Head, sells new titles. The op shops inside Byron Bay itself — Lifeline on Jonson Street, Vinnies on Marvell Street and Global Ripple out on Ewingsdale Road — have not shown books in anything they publish about their own premises, so you'll find them further down among the tips instead, next to a Mullumbimby bookshop whose stock may or may not be used.
Library fundraiser book fairFriends of Libraries Byron Shire Book Fair
Byron Bay Surf Life Saving Club, Bay St, Byron Bay NSW 2481
Friends of Libraries Byron Shire, the volunteer group that backs the libraries in Byron Bay, Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads, describes this fair on its website as its annual fundraiser, and the last two editions both took over the Surf Life Saving Club on Bay Street for four days in July. The Byron Coast Times reported on 15 July 2026 that the fair running from Friday 10 to Monday 13 July set children's titles at $1 and all other books at $3, with the group's president saying donated stock filled three storage sheds in the industrial estate. Volunteers aim to keep the fiction on the tables under ten years old, the same report added. No 2027 dates had appeared by late October 2026, so watch byronbayfol.com in the weeks before July.
Hours: Last documented: 10–13 July 2026, daily 9am–4pmWebsite Secondhand bookshopUncle Peter's Books
29 Main St, Clunes NSW 2480
In Clunes, a hinterland village in the City of Lismore about 23 km west-south-west of Byron Bay, Uncle Peter's Books spreads through the rooms of a Main Street cottage, with upwards of 30,000 second-hand volumes on site, by the owners' own tally, and around 6,000 scarcer or out-of-print books offered through AbeBooks. The shop's history page traces it from a room behind a Bangalow craft shop in 1997 to Lismore from 2008, then to Clunes in May 2014. The same figure appears in an October 2025 Wayback Machine copy of the shop's homepage, alongside an offer to arrange an in-store viewing of any title in its AbeBooks catalogue on 24 hours' notice.
Hours: Tue–Fri 10am–3pm, Sat–Sun 11am–3pmWebsite Secondhand and new bookshopBrunsBooks
5/9 Fingal St, Brunswick Heads NSW 2483
In Brunswick Heads, a coastal village around 13 km north-north-west of central Byron Bay, BrunsBooks trades from a unit on Fingal Street whose listing with the South East Queensland & Northern Rivers Used & Rare Booksellers Association promises a carefully curated mix of recycled and new books. Several 2026 posts on its Facebook page lean on the used stock: one on 15 October listed reasons to love a secondhand copy, and one on 11 September said the shop had a whole collection of rare, collectible and first-edition books in stock, vintage children's classics among them. On 8 August 2026 the owners offered the business for sale as a going concern after more than five years in the street. The association's 2024 entry gave seasonal hours with Tuesday and Wednesday closures in winter, and no newer opening hours appear on its pages; a message to the shop saves a wasted trip.
Where can I find cheap used books in Byron Bay?
Time a visit for July if you can. The Friends of Libraries fair at the Surf Club charged $1 for children's books and $3 for anything else in 2026, and the stock is sorted by volunteers who try to keep the fiction recent. The rest of the year, Lifeline in Ballina was selling non-fiction and kids' books at 10 for $5 when the chain posted about the sale on 26 October 2026, while Uncle Peter's Books in Clunes and BrunsBooks in Brunswick Heads are the places for a long browse.
Where do I sell used books in Byron Bay?
The one shop here that talks about taking books is Uncle Peter's in Clunes: its FAQ says it can accept books in good condition when it has room, turns away magazines, encyclopaedias, Reader's Digest Condensed, book club editions, popular romance, text books, computer titles and ex-library copies, and wants a call or email before anything is dropped off, though it doesn't say how it pays. Otherwise you list them yourself: Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree suit local pick-up, while anything worth the postage goes to Amazon.com.au buyers or onto eBay.com.au. Sorting comes first: prop the books along a shelf, open BiblioScan and take one picture, and each title legible on a spine comes back with a typical resale figure beside it, which separates the keepers for listing from the donation-bag pile before you've put the phone down.
When is the big book sale in Byron Bay?
It's the Friends of Libraries Byron Shire Book Fair, held at the Byron Bay surf club. The group's website describes it as annual; the 2025 edition ran from Friday 11 to Monday 14 July and the 2026 edition covered 10–13 July, again Friday to Monday, with doors open 9am to 4pm each day. Nothing had been posted about 2027 by the end of October 2026.
Which op shops have books in Byron Bay?
Within Byron Bay, neither Lifeline's Jonson Street store nor Vinnies nor Global Ripple has put books into anything dated or specific to that shop. The nearest one with dated proof is Lifeline on River Street in Ballina, part of the chain's October 2026 book sale. Ballina's visitor website also mentions books in its write-ups of four op shops there and in nearby Alstonville, though those entries are undated.